Percy Jackson The Return
by Maximus Redwood
Summary: After being betrayed by all but a few Percy search's the universe for a chance of self redemption. And finds this in some primordial beings and the creator of the universe.
1. The Quest

**~ Percy POV ~**

I knew that the fates hated me. And I certainly knew that I had the worst luck. Id never was destined to have a particularly easy nor happy life. What I never thought would happen was for my entire world to fall apart in less than a year...

 **~ Flashback ~**

* * *

I jerked, startled, and turned around and saw the last goddess I wanted to see. Athena. Not wanting to get on her bad side, I bowed and asked her, "Yes Lady Athena?"

"I'll let you stay at camp for a couple of months to train."

"Train? For what?" I asked, confused.

Athena's eyes glinted, and I instantly had a feeling of dread.

"Why, you're going to prove yourself, Perseus Jackson."

I stood at the boundaries of the Adirondack Park, waiting for Athena to show up and tell me what I must do. She was also apparently bringing me two companions to keep me company, they couldn't help on my quest, but they'd stop me from getting bored. There was a flash of light and a rustle. I turned around and bowed to Athena.

"So, what is it that you want me to do, Lady Athena," I asked.

"Well, I had originally thought of you doing the Labours of Hercules, who once was the greatest hero. But, you've done most of them already, so I'll just give you three objectives. One is to get the Girdle of Hippolyta, which should be easy enough, the second, however, is difficult. Even for you. I will increase your demigod scent by 200% so that any monster within a 100 miles will know where you are. You must survive like that for a week. Oh, and no hiding. You must face them all. The last objective, assuming you survive the second one, well, I'll tell you if you finish the second objective, alright?"

"Erm, ok, but who are my two companions?" I asked. Athena smiled, "Oh, you're best friends with them. And they could learn some fighting skills by watching you anyway." She snapped her fingers, and out of the shadows, Nico appeared. There was a barely perceptible rustle, and Thalia dropped down from the tree.

"Thalia! How long have you been spying on me?" I wondered.

"Quite a while, Seaweed Brain. You were always too stupid to sense when someone's following you. Why do you think I chose the forest as a meeting place?" Thalia replied.

"Oh, so Artemis is near?"

"Yeah, she let me accompany you, I think she thinks you're the only decent man left on Earth".

"Huh. Coming from her, that means a lot…"

"Oh boy, I can't wait to see you fight those monsters Percy, and especially against La- ahem, I mean the Drakons that'll probably appear," Nico said.

I squinted my eyes at him, he almost let something slip, and Athena was glaring at him. I glanced at Thalia, who was also staring at Nico the same way as I was.

"Well, enough time wasted, I suggest you hurry up and go find the Amazons, Jackson. Now, close your eyes, and hold your breath, and try not to throw up." Athena said.

"Wha..?.?" Was all I got out before we were blinded by a golden light.

Once the golden light faded, I felt me, Thalia and Nico beside me. All three of us instantly raised our hand to our mouths and coughed slightly. I was pretty sure all three of us were green.

"So, where are we?" Nico asked.

"Um, hey, I recognize this place! We're in Seattle. Alright, we need to fight the Amazon store." I said.

"What? You mean, the Amazon store as in Amazon the online shopping centre?" Thalia asked, incredulous.

"Yeah, online Amazon and the ancient Amazons are the same. Massive flirts and they even sell pegasi!" I complained.

"Oh, well, I didn't know that. You have any idea on how to obtain the girdle?"

"Yeah. Walk in there, get captured, beaten up, swear on the Styx that I'll return it once I show it to Athena, and poof, done." I said.

"Seriously, did you think I'm that stupid? It's going to be much, much harder to get the girdle, I promise you." A voice said. All three of us instantly whirled around, trying to see where the voice had come from.

"I'm right here, dumbos." We turned to see a blonde haired woman with stormy grey eyes standing right in front of us with a smug expression.

"Lady Athena. Didn't you say that I wasn't supposed to get any help?"

"Well, not from your two companions, but certainly I don't want you to die. Amazon is that way, I've already set everything up with them." Athena replied with an evil grin, and then she disappeared in a gust of wind.

"Oookkkk, that was weird," I said.

"Well, I don't care what she said, but at least she told you where the Amazons are. Now let's get going." Thalia said.

We walked up to the Amazons, and before any of us could say a single word, hands shot out and snatched us inside to complete darkness.

"Yup, it's them, bring them to Hylla Two Kill." A voice said. We were pushed and shoved among a dizzying amount of turns, twists, and 360s. We were handled rather roughly until a voice I recognized spoke out,

"Awww, you don't have to treat them so badly, at least, not for the Hunter. And I'd be personally pleased if you treated the tall, handsome, hot black haired boy well" "The other one, I dunno, so I don't care."

"Ooo, it's him, the one that helped Reyna, right? Let me handle him!" a voice squealed. There was a bunch of squealing, shoving, and small slapping sounds. Then I felt someone drape an arm over my shoulders, and she spoke. "I've got him," she said smugly. Cue the 'Awwws'.

There was a fair amount of snickering, and 'Yes ma'am's at this.

"Nice to meet you too, Kinzie…" I said.

"See? He remembers me! Isn't that so cute?" Kinzie exclaimed.

"Seriously, you'd think that tough Amazons wouldn't act like Aphrodite child's…" Nico grumbled. There were several slapping sounds, and 'Ow's' at this.

"You haven't proved yourself yet, boy, so shut up. Or I'll gag you instead." Kinzie said harshly. Silence. "Good, maybe there's hope for you yet."

We walked along, with Kinzie leaning on me with a surprising grip, I had tried to wiggle myself out but she had an iron hand.

"Alright, we've arrived," Kinzie said.

The doors opened into a room full of brightness, a room I recognized well, as we stumbled from the sudden transition to brightness.

"Ah, Percy Jackson and his two companions. So, you want the girdle? I know you are trustworthy, and you stick to your word, any fool can see that. If I were by myself, I'd gladly let you take it, but unfortunately, something has changed my mind, and persuaded me to give you the girdle only after you go through all our training sessions and reach the level of " Commander". Hylla said.

"Training sessions? That's easy, bring it on then." I said confidently.

Hylla smirked, "On average, it takes two years to finish the Commander training, boy, and our best ones finished it in one and a half years. Even you, skilled as you are, will take at least 6 months to finish it."

"What? Six months?" I practically shrieked.

Hylla smirked again, "Don't worry, you'll have plenty of, ah, distractions to keep you busy." She replied, glancing at Kinzie and all the other female Amazons. I then realized they were all staring at me, drooling. Crap. I knew what Athena was getting at, separate me for a long time, see if I still love Annabeth after all that time. Fine. I'll take whatever it takes to be with Annabeth.

"So, do you accept?"

"Yes, I accept" I grumbled.

"Excellent. Kinzie, take him and the Hunter to their respective rooms. Show Thalia around or whatever she pleases, Percy, be here tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock, sharp, then I'll take you to the arena for the trials"

"Um, ok, er, what about Nico?" I asked.

She looked at him rather distastefully. "Well, I suppose he could train with the rest of the Amazons. If that's alright with him, or we could put him to work like the other males" she said, motioning to the males in orange jumpsuits and iron collars.

"Erm, I'd love to train," Nico said hurriedly.

"Yeah me too, might as well, since I'm gonna have to live here for like half a year," said Thalia.

"Very well, now, leave me be, I need to get your levels and whatnot ready," Hylla said.

"At once, my lady" Kinzie said. She took us to our rooms, which was surprisingly well furnished, two nice looking beds, a TV, and a bathroom. Thalia obviously got a much better room, it was big, had a massive wall-sized TV, a cool looking computer, and a king-sized bed. Lucky her… I thought. Thalia gave a squeal of delight and promptly began jumping up and down the bed.

"Jeeze Thalia, can't you be more mature?" I asked. She responded by giving me a good glare and a shock. "Some things never change…" I muttered. "Wait, Nico, don't jump yet, we have to make sure they didn't rig the bed with traps," I said, as Nico looked like he was about to jump on it too. I carefully prodded and looked around the bed, silently thanking Travis and Connor Stoll's tricks, even though I'd never admitted it in front of them.

"All right, all clear, bounce all you want. Just don't break the bed". I said

Nico promptly jumped on it with joy, while I was half expecting the bed to snap with a large hole in the ground, sending Nico to who-knows-where. I crashed onto the bed and instantly fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, I woke up, found breakfast on the bedside table (Wow, room service!) inhaled the whole thing, took a shower, and opened the door, intending to ask an Amazon on how to get to the throne room. Instead, I was met by an Aphrodite-like dressed Kinzie, who stood there, batting her eyelashes at me with big puppy eyes. I jerked backwards.

"Aww, come on, you don't have to be shy, I'm just here to take you to the throne room. Then I gotta train." Kinzie said.

"You need to train in that type of clothing?" I asked, noticing that she was wearing killer high heels, extremely tight skinny jeans, and a low cut t-shirt.

"I can change clothes quickly," she said, laying a hand on my shoulder. "Want me to show you?" giving me a seductive smile.

I blushed. "No thanks. I'm not here for that type of thing, and never will. Now, where's the throne room?" I grumbled.

"Humph. I wonder what that girl Annabeth sees in you." She pouted. "Follow me". She took me to a door that looked completely normal. Then she took out a special card. "Only I and Hylla have this," she said. She swiped it, and the door retracted. I looked in, it looked like a big slide. "Um… " and then she shoved me forward. I flew down at high speed, and I must say, it's quite fun. Then the slide angled upwards, and before I knew it, I was in midair and crashed on the water. Well, that was considerate, as the water completely cushioned my fall. I willed the water to carry me out, just as I touched the floor, Kinzie walked out of a side door.

"How'd you get down here so fast? Especially in those heels?" I asked.

"That isn't the only slide, dummy," Kinzie said. "If you want, I could show you all those hidden doors," she said, giving me a sly glance.

"Stop flirting, Kinzie, he's here to prove himself," Hylla said. "In there, Jackson" pointing to another door. I walked through, with Hylla and Kinzie following behind. You'll spend a nice long time training, and at the end of each training session is your tests. However, since you're pretty good, we'll just do the tests for a couple of days. Then it'll be javelin throwing, throwing knives, darts, archery, etc.

"Archery?" I stuttered. I was horrible at it.

Hylla gave me an evil grin. "Yeah, we know you suck at it, but we'll see if we can do anything about it. I'll let you off if you don't make the archery since even Apollo said that with his blessing, you couldn't shoot the backside of an elephant."

"Very funny…" I growled.

"Well, let's begin, shall we?" Hylla said. She clapped her hands, and five automatons came rolling out.

"Only five?" I was surprised. This was supposed to be a challenge? Suddenly, one of the automatons arms moved with a blur and I instinctively duck. Just as a bronze throwing knife impaled itself on the wall behind me. Ok, maybe not so easy… and this was supposed to be the first level…

Hylla had a smug look on her face. "You were saying?" "And they're also built of Celestial Bronze, an extra challenge."

Oh, Hades. I pulled out both of my swords and slashed as hard as I could. It made a nice deep cut on the automatons chest, but it didn't slow him down. Even after stabbing him several times in the chest didn't help. I had to slice his cursed head off.

"Are you sure this is Commander level?" I yelled, dodging an almost too fast to see the blade.

"Oh. I lied. This is a completely new level, you should be honoured, Hephaestus himself built the automatons. More than fifty thousand in total." And if you make it through these levels, we'll call these the Percy Jackson levels. Hylla replied.

"FIFTY THOUSAND?" I more or less screamed, slashing off two heads.

"Pffft. Stop yelling, orI'll force you to kill them with only a bow and arrow. No swords." Hylla snapped.

I finally killed off the last automaton. "Ugh, please tell me that I only have a few more levels to go through…" I said.

Kinzie smiled. "Nope, you have another 800 levels to go through, plus training." "Of course, I could always give you a message if you want," she said in a hopeful voice.

800 more levels? I thought. This is going to take a long time…

I was sore and beaten up after my training. And those were only for the first 8 levels. 792 levels to go… I thought glumly. I more or less slumped into a seat in the mess hall and began scarfing down my dinner. Seconds after I had sat down, a very cheerful and happy Thalia and a grumpy, tired looking Nico sat on either side of me. Nico just mumbled a 'Hi' and began shovelling the food into his mouth, while Thalia gave me a cheerful smile and ate at a much slower pace.

"Jeez boys, what's the rush?" Thalia asked.

"Jeez Thalia, why are you so cheerful?" grumped Nico. Thalia must've been in a very good mood to not shock Nico to the Underworld since she answered in a such a happy tone.

"Oh, not much, we went skydiving, watched movies, played on a really neat obstacle course. It was very fun today. And we're going to do a lot more stuff too since we have like half a year of time." She said.

"Glad that you're happy, Thals…". I said in between mouthfuls of barbecue.

"Well, I gotta go to bed guys, need all the energy I can get if I'm to expect to survive tomorrow…" Nico said. With that, he jumped up and literally rushed to the staircases.

Thalia rolled her eyes and muttered "Boys… No endurance." Then she turned to me.

"So, how was your day Perce?" Thalia asked.

"Oh, same old, train on celestial bronze robots, get beaten up, and trying to wrench your sword out of a robots chest," I answered nonchalantly.

Thalia raised an eyebrow and gave me the 'really?' look.

"Yeah, more or less." On my last level, I'm so supposed to kill a lot of monsters and robots." I grumbled.

Thalia laughed. "Well, that's what you get for dating a daughter of Athena, Seaweed Brain. Tell you what, after you finish this stuff, and when you propose to Annabeth, three of us go to any restaurant and just hang out and catch up with the times. Deal?"

"Yeah, definitely," I replied. We shook on it.

"Right, I'm going to sleep too, Pinecone Face, so good night. Oh, and can you do me a favour?"

"Sure, what is it.?"

"Stop those girls from goggling me, I can't sleep with so many people staring at me," I complained

Thalia laughed again. "Yeah, sure, no problem, I'll do my best."

"Thanks again Thals."

"Good night"

I crashed onto the bed and barely had my head hit the pillow, I was snoring.

 **~ Time skip ~**

* * *

And so it went. Every day, I would wake up, go down the slide, eat breakfast, and train and fight. Over the next few months, I could throw knives with pinpoint accuracy, I could calculate what angle to throw them, I could fight blindfolded, using only my other senses, I could throw a javelin through an oak tree from one hundred and fifty meters away, I could take an entire legion of celestial bronze automatons without breaking sweat, my swordsmanship was better than ever, and I had learned some fighting tricks, and some extremely cool counter-attacking moves. They apparently picked it up from a video game called Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. At first, I was incredulous, 'You guys learn fighting moves from a video game?' but when they showed them to me, I was pretty impressed. Then they gave me the game to play. And while some of the moves were for show, a lot of them were actually very smart. And I really wished that I had a pair of hidden blades. Those would have been awesome.

Unfortunately, even spending 5 months non-stop training, my archery had not improved a bit. I still couldn't hit the target, and most of the time, the arrow would fly in the opposite direction. I wanted to try a crossbow, but they didn't have any sense they thought crossbows were too slow. Ah well. At least I could use throwing knives.

Now, I was standing in front of a set of massive double bronze doors, ready to go against my last test. All the Amazons were in the arena, eager to see me fight since I had become something of a legend among them. The doors opened, and I walked in, three short javelins strapped across my back, a belt of throwing knives, a dagger, (I had become pretty skilled with it) and of course, my dual Riptides. They were my weapons of choice. I could literally block anything with them. And I was strong enough to block a direct Warhammer hit.

The Amazons were cheering like crazy, but they fell silent when Hylla stepped up to the podium.

"Amazons! You all know why he is here, so I don't need to do any of that introduction crap. However, Percy, I would like to tell you, there is a change of plans. 4 months ago actually. Athena, who has been watching over your progress, thinks that this is too easy for you. So, for your final test, you will fight against powerful monsters that we Amazons have spent much time and effort into capturing them. I sincerely wish you the best of luck, and hope that you succeed." Hylla announced. Uh oh. Athena changed plans? This can't be good. I thought.

"Good luck, Percy!" said a familiar voice.

I jumped slightly and saw a younger version of Hylla sitting in a seat of honour next to Hylla's. It was Reyna.

"Um, thanks, I didn't know you were the good luck type. I thought you were more of that It-depends-on-your-skill type of person" I replied.

"Trust me, with these monsters, you'll need a lot of luck. And don't let me down, I still accept you, even if Camp Jupiter doesn't." Reyna said.

I flinched slightly. After what I had done to Octavian, Camp Jupiter thought I was a cruel, ruthless, and cold-blooded torturer. They had effectively kicked me out so I couldn't go anywhere near the camp.

"Alright, enough talk, OPEN THE GATES!" Hylla's voice boomed out.

Three gates opened, and the first monster that came out was the Minotaur. Easy I thought. Then the second one opened. Hydra. Crap. The third one opened. Nemean Lion. Oh hell, Athena is really making this difficult. I quickly readied myself, drawing Riptide and pulling the second one out of itself.

I decided to spare the Minotaur since it is a stupid monster, could actually be helpful in taking down the other monsters. As the three Lions charged at me, I quickly ran straight into the middle, so if the Hydra spat or tried to bite me, I could jump aside and hopefully the attacks would hit the other monsters.

I had planned on trying to kill the Lion first, but it was pretty smart, it stayed back. So I decided to engage the Hydra and the Minotaur.

"Hey Beef Head, back so soon? Remember me?" I taunted. I could tell the Hydra was behind me, and that's what I was hoping for because, from my experience, the Minotaur has only one gear, which is forward. True to my hopes, the minotaur bellowed and charged, swing its Omega axe along the way. I waited until the last second, then did a flip over its head so I landed behind it just as the Hydra got into position behind me. The Minotaur slammed into the Hydra full force, and the two began attacking each other. Well, that should give me a bit of a break I thought. Then I turned my attention to the Lion.

The Lion charged, swiping its razor-sharp claws at me, which I barely dodged. I did a double slash with both of my swords, which would have turned it into Meow Mix, except its skin was invincible. But what I was trying to do was to make the Lion open its mouth. Or at least widen his eyes a bit. I attacked furiously, pushing the Lion back, forcing it to retreat straight into the brawl the Hydra and Minotaur were still having. It just so happened that the Lion got right into the middle, right when the Minotaur and the Hydra were going to charge each other. The Lion was caught in the middle, hit on one side by a big, heavy, axe, and the other by 18 pairs of super sharp teeth.

The Lion roared with pain, even though the axe and the teeth didn't puncture its skin, there was a lot of force behind it. As the Lion roared, I took my chance. I whipped off two of the javelins on my back and threw them, both of them scored, plunging deep into Lion's throat and brain. The Lion's eyes rolled upwards, and then it collapsed, leaving only its pelt behind. My victory didn't last long though, because the instant I killed the Lion, the Minotaur and the Hydra instantly turned their attention to me.

As the Minotaur charged, I calmly waited until the last second, then sidestepped and stuck my blade out. The Minotaur was so stupid that he continued running, and even managed a few steps when his head was lopped off. Then he turned to dust. Two down, one to go. Erm, strike that, nine to go, as I looked at the Hydra's heads. I tried to remember what Hercules did, he and someone else had use fire to cauterize the stumps. Great I thought while dodging and parrying the Hydra's teeth. Just when I need Leo, he isn't here. I looked around frantically, searching for anything hot. Just when I decided that I might as well try to cut all seven heads off at once, I looked in Reyna's direction and realized that she had a bronze brazier in front of her. She caught me looking and gave me a wink, all while innocently eating sausage that she had just cooked. She then took a deliberate sip from a large 1-litre water bottle next to her. Great, now I just need six more of those. I ducked under the Hydra's guard and slash its feet off, causing it to move much slower. Hey, wait a minute… crazy idea time…

I aimed a large swipe at all nine of the Hydra's head, causing it to jerk backwards. I then rolled underneath it, and slashed its feet off, effectively turning it into an immobile, seven-headed monster. "

"Excellent, now for the ouchy part" I muttered under my breath. I sprinted towards Reyna's brazier,

"Yeah, yeah, I owe you one Reyna," I said, just loud enough for her to hear. She gave a very good impression of being indignant that I had stolen her brazier and water bottle.

And took it. Inside was a lot of coals. Red hot. I was a son of Poseidon, which meant that I had increased heat resistance, but I didn't know my limit. Carrying brazier in one hand, and Riptide in the other, I forced the water out of the bottle and made a large ring out of it. I looped it around eight of the Hydra's neck, and leapt onto its back, and slashed one of its heads off. I quickly picked a coal up, which felt quite comfortable and stuck it right on the bleeding neck. Instantly, the blood boiled, and a terrible stench began to fill the air. I ignored it and began to slash the other heads off, one by one, cauterizing each one. I finally slashed off its immortal head, effectively killing it. I stepped back and looked at Hylla. She just gestured with her hand.

Once again the gates open. The first one, around 500 or so monsters came pouring out. Sure, I can take that I thought. Then there was a very familiar roar that shook the entire arena. No way... a drakon slithered out of the second gate. And it was the Lydian drakon, the same one that killed Silena Beauregard. A cold rage filled my heart since Silena was like one of two Aphrodite girls that I respected. Excellent, payback time I thought, even though I had no idea how to kill it since I didn't have an electric spear to stab in its eye. I was about to charge the monsters when another familiar sound came from the third gate. It was a squeal. Hades no…

The Erymanthian boar came out of the gate at me so fast, it looked like it was flying. I barely had time to throw myself to the side, and the boar seemed to really hate me. It kept on swishing its canoe sized tusks back and forth, and it was all I could do to dodge them. What was worse was that the other monsters had started attacking. The drakon was smart, it just stayed still, waiting it out. Hey, maybe I can use that to my advantage. It was just coiled up, its thick body like a huge roadblock. And the spaces in between its armoured plates would be very useful as handholds.

I sprinted toward the drakon, the boar in hot pursuit, and I began running alongside the drakon until, at the last minute, I jumped onto the drakon's back, and the boar smashed into the drakon's side. The good news: The boar went flying as it hit the drakon, flew through the air, and crash-landed among the big group of monsters, easily taking out a couple dozen instantly. The bad news: The drakon knew I was on its back, and it was doing everything it could to toss me off.

I hung on for dear life, as the world became a crazy blur, it was almost as if you were on a rollercoaster that went a thousand miles an hour and changed direction every second. After a while, the drakon seemed to think that I had most likely flown off, and paused, taking in its surroundings. I took the chance and began to climb its back like the rock wall back at Camp. I clambered onto the top of its head and was about to stab both of its eyes when the drakon suddenly tossed his head downward. I flew down and landed with a loud thump, both of my swords flew out of nerveless fingers and a cloud of dust surrounding me. I then felt a burning sensation on my left shoulder and realized with a shock that I had landed right next to a pool of Hydra acid.

Hey, wait, Hydra acid! I thought.

The drakon towered over me, its mouth wide open, ready to snap me up. It slammed its mouth down, and I rolled, then I hurriedly whipped off my last javelin off my back, dipped it into the pool of acid, and held it straight up just as the drakon smashed his mouth down around me. The was a loud crack as the javelin shaft splintered, but I knew the head had gone deep into its throat and brain. It arched its back as its eyes smoked, the drakon gave a final scream and collapsed into a pile of dust and scales.

"That's for killing Silena Beauregard, you disgusting snake," I said, quite proud of myself for killing the drakon.

The back of my neck tingled, and I instinctively threw myself sideways right as a pair of huge tusks came sweeping over where I had just been standing. As it stomped past me, I slashed with both of my swords, opening two large gashes on its side. It squealed with rage and pain and swung it's tusks again. As it swung, I ducked under the swing and held both of my swords straight up.

Crack crack!

I looked up and saw a tuskless boar. My swords had chopped it off when it swung, and now all it could do was charge at me. I sidestepped, and slashed again, opening another two gashes. And so it continued, as I kept on sidestepping and slashing, while the boar got slower and slower, until it finally collapsed, wheezing. I raised my sword and swung it with all my strength. There was a squelching sound, and its head hit the ground as the rest of the body slowly dissolved. I looked up, expecting a group of monsters to attack me, but I just found a nice big pile of monster dust. Heh. Turns out the boar was pretty good at killing monsters. I turned to Hylla and she nodded.

"Percy Jackson, you have proven yourself above all other heroes. Duh. Even Hercules had to beat them one by one. So, I will give you your prize, but you must swear on the Styx that you will return it after you have shown Athena" Hylla announced.

"I swear on the Styx that I will return the girdle after I have shown it to Athena," I said. Thunder boomed, and Hylla nodded. She gave it to me, and for some reason, the Amazons cheered. They put me on their shoulders and carried me all the way to the mess hall.

After all the celebrating, I was about to go upstairs to sleep on a nice, comfy bed one last time when a golden flash lit the room. I turned around and saw Athena.

"Lady Athena, I do not wish to be rude, but why are you here?" I asked.

Athena gave me an evil grin, "Well, I thought I might as well help you hurry along right? You said you wanted to make it as fast as possible. So, you can hand the girdle back to Hylla, and I'll transport you to California for your, ah, last objective."

"Last objective? I thought I had two more?" I asked, rather confused.

"Yeah, well, you did have two more, but after seeing you wipe an army of Hephaestus's bronze automatons with that much ease, killing those monsters isn't a very big challenge you know. However, I can promise you that your last objective will be harder than anything you have ever gone through."

I gulped. Harder than all those ancient monsters together? That doesn't sound good. "What's that," I asked.

Athena's eyes glinted, "Well, I want you to take a Golden Apple from the Garden of the Hesperides. By your own hand."

Everyone but me and Nico looked shocked. Nico had the I-already-knew-about-this look, while I was still trying to figure out what Athena meant. Then it hit me. I gasped.

"Y-you want me to kill…? I stuttered.

Athena's eyes were deadly serious. "Yes"


	2. Golden apples?

**~ Flashback Continued ~**

* * *

So Jackson, get a good rest, a nice breakfast, I'll let you stock up on weapons and you can use your powers, alright? As I said, I don't want you dead. Meet you at noon, outside of the store. So, good night" Athena said.

With that cheerful thought, she vanished in a flash of light. Everyone was staring at me with a mix of pity, horror and fear. Pity cause I have to kill Ladon, horror cause I'm most likely gonna get ripped to bits, and fear because Athena thinks I can do it. I myself was glaring at the place where Athena had just disappeared. Why couldn't she tell me this after I woke up? Nooo, its 'Hey, go kill the strongest monster to ever live, undefeated, and get a good sleep!' How am I supposed to sleep after that?

Suddenly, all the Amazons began crying and sobbing, while I looked on in shock. Then I heard snippets, like, "Percy's gonna die!" or "How can Athena be that mean?"

"QUIET!" Reyna and Hylla bellowed together.

Everyone instantly shut up and looked at the two, even though they were still wiping their cheeks.

"Look, while I must admit that the chances of surviving an encounter with Ladon are slim, there's a chance. He's not the greatest hero to ever walk this Earth for no reason." Hylla said.

Reyna nodded. "His skills are unmatched, and he's a Son of Poseidon, and it's kinda close to the sea there, so he could call on its power if he must."

"So, let us put those three in our executive rooms, and we shall help Percy with his equipment, supplies, everything and send him off with our best wishes," Hylla announced.

The Amazons gave a cheer again, and picked all three of us up, and carried us to a huge room that had three doors in it.

"The rooms are identical, just super comfy, ultra quiet, with all the amenities you could ever wish for. We'll wake you at around eight ok Percy?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot Hylla, and you, Reyna," I said, still in a slight shock that I had to find some way to kill Ladon.

They gave a nod and turned to walk out, but before they could leave, Kinzie whirled around and asked me, "Are you sure you don't want a massage? I mean, you'd probably be all tense right?"

"Kinzie, not now, he's not in the mood," Hylla said, grabbing Kinzie's arm and pulling her out.

I took a shower and crashed onto the bed, surprisingly, I fell asleep quickly.

* * *

I woke with a start, and looking at the clock, realized that it was almost eight a.m. and hurriedly took a shower and dressed in comfy jeans and a t-shirt that said 'Death to Green Day'. I grinned. This was sure to piss Thalia off.

I walked out of the room and promptly bumped into Nico, who was about to knock on my door to wake me up.

"Oh good, you're awake, c'mon, I don't want those Amazons to start swarming over us." He said. Then he stopped and looked at my shirt.

"Oh gods, um, I think I'll go by myself alright?" With that, he ran off to the mess hall. I grinned again. This was going to get an excellent reaction from Thalia. I walked over to her room and knocked on the door. There was a scuffling sound, and the door opened to reveal Thalia dressed in hunters garb, her head bobbing to a song she was listening to. Thalia gave me a cheerful smile,

"Hey Percy I can't wait to see you get your as- WHAT IN HADES ARE YOU WEARING?" she screamed. Her eyes, just moments ago a bright electric blue, instantly turned into a harsh laser blue, glaring at me as if I'd killed her grandma.

"Whoa Thals, calm down, I'm just wearing a shirt," I said.

"JUST A SHIRT? I DEMAND THAT YOU TAKE IT OFF JACKSON!" She shrieked.

I laughed. "uh uh. No way. I love your reaction too much to take off my shirt. And do you mean to change my shirt? I don't think Artemis be happy if I take off my shirt you know." I replied, smirking.

Thalia blushed an intense red, and tried to cover it up by growling "Fine, change your shirt, whatever, but don't you dare wear that again in front of me."

"Or what. You gonna shock me?"

Thalia gave me a super sweet smile that instantly creeped me out. "No. I'm going to follow you around the whole time, everywhere, forcing you to listen to 'Jam' or 'Friday'."

I paled. The last time I had annoyed Thalia, she had literally followed me everywhere, even when I was making out with Annabeth, she'd pop out playing 'Friday' or 'Jam' on her iPod, full blast.

"Alright, alright, I'll go change my shirt. Just please don't play those awful songs." I said.

Thalia smirked. "Get going, Seaweed Brain."

Resignedly, I went into my room and changed into a sea green shirt. I walked out, and Thalia nodded. We walked to the mess halls and sat down on either side of Nico, who gave me a questioning look when he saw me wearing the sea green shirt instead of the Death to Green Day shirt.

"I changed my shirt because Thalia, being a mean huntress, bullied me into changing it" I whined while smiling at the same time.

Nico smirked. "What did Thalia threaten you with?"

"I said that I'd follow him everywhere, playing 'Jam' and 'Friday' full blast," Thalia said with a triumphant grin.

Nico shuddered. "Wow, I'd rather face my dad when he's grumpy than listen to those songs. Hey, that can be used as a punishment in the Underworld!"

"Glad I could be of use Nico… " I mumbled while just poking at my food.

"Hey, Hylla's going to speak, let's see what she's gonna give you eh? Thalia said.

That was true. An Amazon tapped a gong, and everyone instantly quieted down.

"Amazons, as you know, Percy Jackson must go and face Ladon in his quest to prove his love." At this, Reyna rolled her eyes and muttered just loud enough, "Any blind idiot can see he loves Annabeth"

"Reyna, while I agree with your sentiments, it would be better if you stay silent since you most likely insulted the wisdom goddess seeing as you more or less called her a blind idiot" Hylla glared at Reyna.

Reyna merely mumbled a few words in Latin that made Hylla glare at her even more. Finally, she gave up.

"Whatever, now, while Athena has said that our young hero cannot receive any help from his companions, doesn't mean that we can't give him a belt of greek fire throwing knives. Or miniature jars of greek fire. Or nectar and ambrosia." Hylla smiled. "Come on up and get your stuff, Jackson"

I walked up and Hylla gave me a belt that had many, many daggers and a couple of vials on them. I took them and strapped them to my waist.

"Be careful with those daggers. The blade is coated in a thin layer of greek fire, once it hits something, it'll explode. So try not to bump them around. And those vials are plain greek fire. Pretty explosive."

"So, basically, I'm armed with exploding knives and a couple of grenades that explode on impact," I said.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jackson, that's what you're armed with. And all of your supplies for healing and whatnot are in that bag. We'll send you out, and if you succeed, stop by before you go to your Camp, will you?" She asked.

"Yeah, of course, I will, if I do succeed, it's all thanks to your training," I said.

The Amazons cheered again and made some sort of honour guard as we walked up to their "store". Athena was already there, waiting, with a strange expression. Worried? Excitement? I couldn't tell.

"Hello Percy, you had a good night's rest?" She asked in a slightly stiff tone. Did she intercept my dream? Did she know that Zoe had given me tips on defeating Ladon? Or that creepy, big dude, who I thought was Chaos had talked to me? I kept my face as neutral as possible when I answered.

"Yeah, well enough," I mumbled.

"Very well. I will transport you to the mountain, and then you will choose where to attack." Athena said.

The Amazons instantly began crushing me with hugs and words, like "Bye Percy" or "I hope I'll see you again". I even saw a couple of Amazons hug Nico. Kinzie tackled me with a hug that I tried to squirm out of, while Hylla and Reyna clapped me on the shoulders.

"What's the point in saying goodbye when we'll see each other again, eh?" Reyna said.

"No point. That's why I'm going to say see you later" I replied, smiling slightly.

"That's the spirit, Percy," Hylla said.

"Alright you three, ready?" Athena asked. We nodded. She clapped her hands, and we were once again blinded by the golden light. This time, when the light faded, none of us even felt like throwing up.

"You are very close to the garden, so I bid you luck and farewell for now," Athena said. And with that, she vanished in a flash of light.

I looked at Thalia and Nico, who just looked back at me.

"Well, I guess this is it. It's been nice knowing you guys." I said.

"Don't talk like that! We'll wait for you, no matter how long it takes." Thalia said.

"Yeah, even if I feel your soul in the Underworld, I ain't moving anywhere, even if the gods come to move me," Nico said stubbornly.

I was quite touched and very grateful to have such good friends.

"Thanks, guys, I'll be back before you know it," I said, trying to sound confident.

Suddenly, Thalia tackled me in a tight hug and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Don't leave me alone, Seaweed Brain." She said.

I blushed. "Artemis is gonna turn me into a jackalope.."

"Nope, she won't, she'll understand this situation," Thalia replied with a defiant look.

Nico gave me a hug, "Don't leave me either, you're my closest friend."

I gave him a small grin, "Even if I die, you'll just see me again in the Underworld, right?"

"That's not what I mea-!"

"I know you meant, Nico, and believe, that meant a lot. Well, I got an appointment to keep, so see you guys later." I said, walking off towards the garden.

I walked as carefully and quietly as I could, so as not to alert the Hesperides that I had arrived. When I got in sight of the Garden, I quickly ducked behind a bush and did a short recon of it. To my slight delight, I noticed that Ladon's tail was only 50 some feet away. The bad news was that Ladon was awake. And gods, his breath smelled terrible. It smelled like all things rotten mixed together, with a slight touch of sickly sweet mint. Ugh. Seeing that he was awake, and having witnessed his reaction times before, I decided to use the ocean to temporarily crush and stun him while I went in to cut off that tree trunk thick tail. I silently pulled out both of my Riptides and concentrated on the ocean.

I felt it all around me, and I willed it to come over to where I was and come crashing down. I felt a tug in my gut, and a massive, airborne tidal wave came in, destroying almost everything, except for the tree, which I had made a temporary shield for it. The instant the wave hit, I leapt forward, swing my left-hand sword with all my strength. It sank deep into the tail, near the rump, about halfway down, then I quickly pulled it out and hacked at it with my other sword. I finally cut straight through, and the tail fell, the wound spurting with black blood.

There was a loud roar that shook the ground, and probably carried all the way to Olympus, and Ladon whirled around, its one hundred heads spitting poison, death, and a really, really bad breath. Dang, he needed breath mints. Without a second thought, I leapt forward, swing both of my swords at high speed, slashing off four heads with relative ease since he was still a bit surprised.

Yay! 96 heads to go! I thought. Then Ladon began attacking so fast, it felt as if I were fighting Kronos times 100. Oh hell… I thought as I barely dodged a couple dozen pair of teeth that would have ripped me apart. I rolled and decided to keep moving, that way it would also have to keep moving. The bad thing was that I forgot how long Ladon's necks were. As I leapt into the air and did an aerial strike, one his heads slammed into me so hard I created a miniature crater when I landed. If it hadn't been for the fact that I took the lightning bolt for Artemis and nearly broke all my bones when I hit the side of that mountain, I was pretty sure I wouldn't have survived this blow.

I gave a slight groan and rolled away instinctively, just as Ladon's teeth snapped mere centimetres away from my body. I leapt up and decided to close in since if his neck was so long, it might tangle him if I went closer. I pushed forward, and since Ladon was spitting poison and snapping and attacking almost everywhere at once, I decided to use the last stance that I had learned from the Amazons. I called it the 360. 360 degrees of offence and defence at once. It was only good when you were surrounded. Such as this case. I attacked like a whirlwind, while Ladon fought right back like a tornado. I cut everywhere, causing black blood to fly through the air, while the air itself was thick with poison since my swords were magical, they weren't affected by the poison, so the poison just flew right back at Ladon due to the speed I was swinging the swords.

I was making progress, but I knew that I couldn't last much longer because this type of attack required lots of energy. And I still had about seventy some heads to go through. I lunged forward, attempting to attack the base of its neck, where all the other heads sprouted from. That I did, taking off ten heads with both of swords, but unfortunately, I forgot about Ladon's foot.

His clawed foot slammed into me, crushing me against the ground with so much force that I sank two inches into the ground and stars began swimming in my eyesight. Stars! Zoe Nightshade! I almost forgot what she told me about using water powers to distract Ladon! And what was the other clue? He is ordered to guard the tree with his life. As I blinked my eyes, I saw the remaining 60 or so heads hissing over me, ready to bite my head off. I thought fast and concentrated on the water around me, and willed it into a warrior shape, moved it right next to the tree, and made a hand out of the water as if to pluck an apple off. Just as Ladon was about to bite my head off, one of the Hesperides screamed.

Ladon instantly leapt off me and lunged towards the warrior. Success! I now knew Ladon's weakness thanks to Zoe! I took the opportunity to jump up, took three Greek fire throwing knives in each of my hands, and threw it, aiming for the base of its many necks. As it hit, six large balls of Greek fire burst into life, burning up at least twenty of Ladon's heads. Ladon screamed, and instantly came at me, I leapt backwards, and made my water warrior rush forward, and Ladon whirled around to attack it. I grinned. Once you know the monsters weakness, it's too easy. I calmly took out six knives and threw them at the same spot. Again, the burst of Greek fire and another ten or so heads fell to the ground, burnt up. Now Ladon had about thirty heads, but he was smart. He split his attention so that fifteen took my water warrior, and the other fifteen came at me. Time for a new approach. I deflected Ladon's poison and teeth and summoned more water. I quickly made an Atlas-like water giant, complete with a large spear, and made it stomp towards the tree. When Ladon saw it, he hesitated.

That was all I needed. I quickly pulled out all of the Greek fire vials on my belt and tossed it underneath Ladon. Then, I broke down the water Atlas and used it to shoot me up. I did a flip, so my swords were pointing downwards. I slammed into Ladon, both of my swords piercing his huge body, let go of my swords and quickly jumped off. Not a moment too soon. The force with which I landed on him was great enough that his body sank to the ground, enough to crack the Greek fire vials. A large explosion of Greek fire sent Ladon flying up several feet, and I took the chance to slice off four more heads. Ladon landed on his side, and I could see how hideously charred his underside was. I collected all the water around me, and threw it at Ladon, slamming into him with enough force to topple him over. I leapt in and slashed and hacked as fast as I could, black blood staining the water, I then leapt backwards, drew back my arms, and let both of my swords fly straight into him. Ladon roared and attempted to fight through my water cloud. I began throwing my knives as fast as I could, sending them in one after another until my belt was completely empty. I paused, panting, my muscles on fire. There was silence. No roaring, no stomping, not even a whiff of smelly breath. I approached cautiously, pulling out both Riptides. What I saw surprised me. Ladon's massive body was terribly burned, and large parts seemed to have completely burnt off. I looked at the base of his necks and to my surprise, only one head remained. The rest were badly burnt stumps that gave off a rancid smell. When Ladon saw me, he cowered and whimpered, slowly retreating.

"You have won against Ladon, Perseus Jackson," a voice said.

I whirled around and found the Hesperides staring at me with a mix of hate, awe, and fear.

"How do I know that he won't bite me from behind?" I asked.

"He knows you have the power to destroy him. Which means that he will follow any order you give him. In his eyes, you rank even higher than Atlas himself." A Hesperide replied.

"Oh. So you mean I can go pick an Golden Apple(Lol, reminds of those 24k gold plated Apple MacBooks) ?" I asked.

"No. Not yet. You must swear by the Styx that you will not eat the Apple unless given permission from the gods. Then you may pick as many as you wish." She replied.

"Alright. I swear on the River Styx that I will not eat a Golden Apple from the Garden of the Hesperides without the permission of the gods." I said.

Thunder boomed, and the Hesperides nodded.

"You may pick as many as you wish, and should you want to, you can always come back here later to pick more. I suggest you pick all there is on the tree since it takes a long time for them to grow."

I walked up to the tree, a strange giddiness over me. I could finally date Annabeth! I was so happy. I was about to pick the apples when I realized I didn't have a bag. I turned.

"Um, do you have a bag?" I asked, embarrassed.

"No need, here you god, Jackson." Another voice said behind me.

I turned and found Lady Athena standing there. The Hesperides and I bowed.

"Well, Jackson, you have proved yourself worthy of Annabeth, so I give you full permission to court her, propose, Hades, even marry her." She said, handing me a bag.

I looked at her and said with true gratitude, "Thank you, Lady Athena. This means a lot to me." I turned to the tree and counted, there were sixteen Golden Apples. I carefully reached up and plucked them all from the branches, putting them carefully in the bag.

"Finished, Lady Athena. What should I do with the apples?" I asked.

"Keep them. I'll shrink the bag's size, so that it's not noticeable, and you can decide what to do with them. Just remember, whoever eats those apples, will turn into an immortal." Athena said. She waved her hand, and my bag shrunk into a tiny, palm-sized little bag that I could easily hook onto my belt.

"Wait, he did not kill Ladon for fame? He was doing it for love?" A Hesperide asked. (I don't know Old English, so yeah…)

Athena nodded. "He has earned my approval, and I think that my dear Annabeth will have a very good boyfriend. Although I hate to admit it, she is very lucky. Perseus here is the first Barnacle Beard's spawn that I actually approve of."

I blushed. "Thanks, Athena." I said Then I asked," Lady Athena, I have a favour to ask of you actually."

Athena narrowed her eyes just slightly, and asked, "What."

"Well, now that Ladon is defeated, could you protect, or at least keep an eye out on the tree? And can you also keep the fact that I defeated Ladon secret? Because if word goes out, a LOT of people will come over here and take advantage of Ladon's temporary incapacitation." I explained.

Athena had a thoughtful look on her face. "Yes, that is an excellent idea. I will keep my lips sealed on the Styx, and so shall you, yes?"

"I swear on the Styx that I am not going to let anyone else know that Ladon is defeated," I said. Thunder rolled and the oath was made.

"And of course, you cannot let anyone know that you have the Apples. Not even Nico or Thalia. Oh, and I'll take care of the Amazons, don't worry." Athena said.

"Of course" I replied.

"Well, Percy Jackson, perhaps we were mistaken of you, you truly are a hero. We thank you for your consideration and generosity" The Hesperides told me, bowing slightly.

"No problem," I said, smiling. I turned to Athena. "Alright, since I'm finished, I wanna go back home and yeah, you know."

Athena nodded and snapped her fingers. Golden light washed over us, and we materialized in front of Thalia and Nico, who was staring at the Garden, wide-eyed. They shrieked when we appeared, then both of them gave me Ladon strong hugs.

"Oh my gods Percy, I swear that I have never been that worried before in my life!" Thalia practically screamed in my ear.

Even Nico was too happy to give me a "man hug", deciding to crush me in a huge hug instead.

"So, did you get an Apple?" Nico asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I picked an apple off, Athena came, gave me her approval, then took the apple with her." I lied, feeling slightly guilty that I was lying to two of my closest friends.

"Oh, and also, for security reasons, I need you two to swear on the River Styx that you won't tell anyone that I defeated Ladon or that Ladon has been defeated, ok?" I asked.

"I swear," both of them said. Thunder boomed again.

Athena spoke up. "Well, now that your reunion is complete, I'll teleport you three to the Amazons, so you can tell them that you are alright since they are quite worried. The camp is currently eating dinner, and I suspect that you don't want to propose to Annabeth in front of everyone, so once you are done talking to the Amazons, Nico can shadow travel you and Thalia to camp."

"Thank you, Lady Athena," all three of us said, bowing.

Athena nodded, raised her hand, and then lowered it. "I forgot Jackson, you cannot properly propose to Annabeth without a ring, so, here you go."

She tossed me a box, and inside, was a fantastic ring, made of Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold mixed together, and a very sparkly looking stone that had grey and green mixing beautifully together. On the inside of the band, was the inscription, Yours, forever and after. Seaweed Brain.

I looked up, trying to form words, but failing miserably.

Athena gave me a true smile. "You deserve it, Jackson. And don't thank me, thank Hephaestus, he made it himself." Before I could say anything, she snapped her fingers, and we were instantly transported in front of the Amazon store. We had barely gotten our sense together when there was a lot of screaming. We were instantly yanked into the store as blinds rolled down the windows, and the lights turned on. We were surrounded by Amazons, and they were screaming like crazy, saying things like 'OH MY GOD, HE'S ALIVE', and 'I KNEW HE WOULDN'T FAIL' it was so loud, my eardrums almost got blown out.

"Alright everyone, I'm delighted to see you guys also, but can you please be quiet!" I yelled.

Instantly, everyone quieted down, even though they were still staring at me. Not knowing what to say, I turned to Reyna.

"Well, I'm back. Didn't let you down, did I?" I asked, with a grin crossing my face.

Reyna walked towards me, slapped my face, then pulled me into a hug.

"Glad to see your whole body, Percy, not just bits of you." She said, smiling.

I rubbed my cheek. "Did you have to hit that hard?" I whined.

She rolled her eyes. "You want me to hit hard?"

"Eh, no thanks," I said, hurriedly.

She smirked. "Thought so."

Hylla came over and gave me a hug too. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad you're alive, Jackson. If anyone told me that a year ago, I'd say they needed to get their heads checked." She said, grinning.

Kinzie came over a hopeful look on her face. "Give me a kiss?" She asked, puckering her lips.

I merely gave her the you-think-I'm-going-to look, and she pulled me into an extremely tight hug instead.

I quickly detangled myself from her and addressed Hylla.

"I know that we just go back, but I'm afraid that I have to go back to camp. I've been away for a while, and well, don't think I can wait much longer. I hope you understand." I said, in a slight pleading tone.

Hylla nodded. "Of course. You've stayed with us for a long time, and that was enough fun for like, another century. But if you have time, come to visit us, won't you?" She asked.

The room was instantly full of 'Yes!' and 'Please visit us!'.

"Yeah, don't worry, if I manage to find some time, I'll definitely come to visit," I said.

The Amazons cheered, and I excused myself, Thalia and Nico.

We walked outside, and Nico said: "Alright, hold tight, this is gonna be really fun." Giving us a wicked grin.

I grabbed Nico's hand, and Thalia took hold of my arm with a vice like a grip. Suddenly, everything disappeared, and I could literally feel myself zooming across the country. I saw buildings, fields, animals, the Sears Tower, a lake, and then we were at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill.

"Wow. That was actually pretty cool." Thalia said. I had to agree. Before we could say anything more, the hair on the back of my neck rose, and I whirled around, drawing my two Riptides. Nico and Thalia followed suit, Thalia with her bow and arrow, and Nico with his Stygian Iron sword. We formed a small circle, watching warily.

"Who's there! Show yourself!" I commanded.

"Rather rude, aren't you, young man." A female voice said.

"Yes! Very rude! Even though you can't blame him since we did surprise him." A very familiar voice crackled out.

"Lady Artemis? Mrs Dodds?" I asked, uncertainly.

Out of the woods near us, the hunters sprang out, with Artemis at the front, and Mrs Dodds cackling overhead.

"Well, Thalia, haven't seen you in five months and a week. Had fun with the Amazons?" Artemis asked.

"Erm, yes, my lady. Very fun." Thalia stammered out.

"I can only guess at what type of fun they'd do…" Artemis muttered. "Anyways, you are five months behind on your training and chores, so say your goodbyes and hurry up."

Thalia blushed, gave me a last hug, and said "Good luck with your proposal, Kelp Head"

"Yeah, thanks, see you later too, Pinecone Face."

Artemis gave me a nod, and the hunters and Thalia disappeared in a flash of light.

"Well, Nico boy, your father is quite grumpy that he has had to patrol the Underworld without your help. So I suggest you hurry up too before he calls Persephone in to turn you into a tulip." Mrs Dodds said.

Nico paled and gave me a handshake. "Well, I guess this is goodbye, for now, Perce, see you later when I have time."

"Bye Nico, and thanks for your companionship."

Nico nodded, and he and Mrs Dodds melted into blackness and disappeared.

I gave a small sigh and stretched. Annabeth, here I come.


	3. Champion of the Hearth

~ Flashback Continued ~

* * *

Tonight is going to be the best night ever" I thought, as I walked up the hill and past the tree. While training with the Amazons was fun, Camp Half-Blood would always be my home. And I missed it. I stood at the top of the hill, surveying camp for a little bit, watching as people began to disperse from the campfire. I was about to walk down when an Iris Message appeared before me. It was Nico.

"Hey, Nico didn't know your dad would let you off the hook that fast.

Nico shuddered. "Well, he didn't exactly let me off, but instead of doing one year of patrol, I only need to do six months!"

"Erm, why is your dad being so nice?" I asked.

"Haha, because I mentioned that listening to 'Friday' and 'Jam' would be good as eternal punishment. He's drowning himself in nectar and alcohol right now because it was so bad. So, I have you to thank for cutting my punishment in half, even though accompanying you got me there in the first place."

I laughed. "Nah, don't thank me, thank Thalia. She's the one that mentioned it."

There was a crashing sound in the back and yelling. Nico's eyes widened. "Oh crap, I think Dad's destroying all the music players, I gotta go and stop him before he attacks my stuff! Bye!" He waved his hands through the mist, and the connection cut.

Hehe. That was funny. The mortals were making their own punishments.

I walked down and went straight to the Big house. I met Chiron when I was halfway there.

"Percy, my boy, you're back! I take it your, ah, quest was successful?" Chiron asked

"Um, how did you know? But to answer your question is was extremely successful" I replied, smiling happily.

"Athena told me that you went on a "quest". And I can only think of a few things that Athena would want you to do. So I put two and two together, and I get four!" Chiron said, grinning.

"That figures. Where's Annabeth?" I asked.

Suddenly, he turned away from me, shifting just slightly so that I couldn't stare at him straight in his eyes.

"I don't know, why don't you go to the Athena cabin and ask them? She's been extremely busy lately" Chiron replied.

I had an uneasy feeling, but I brushed it off. "Alright, thanks Chiron," I said. I walked off, heading straight to the Athena cabin, greeting my old friends and new campers as I walked there. They were all quite surprised to see me. As I reached the Athena cabin, I noticed that the owl's eyes seemed to move and follow me. Maybe it was just my imagination. I knocked, and Malcolm, Annabeth's second in command, opened the door.

"Hey Percy, long time no see, where you been?" he asked.

"I was on a quest, so to speak, Athena gave it to me herself and forbade me to tell anyone even though I think Chiron knows about it" I replied. "Where's Annabeth? Chiron told me to ask you guys, he said that she was very busy"

Malcolm's eyes suddenly dropped, and he fidgeted. "Annabeth? Oh right, she gave me this letter to give to you when you came back" he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out the envelope.

"Ah ok, thanks Malcolm".

"I suggest you go to the beach to read it, you seem to be attracting a lot of attention…"

"Will do". In all honesty, I was rather disappointed, this wasn't how I envisioned myself of talking and meeting with Annabeth, but I went to the beach, and slit open the envelope and read the letter:

Dear Percy,

Where have you been these past few months? Chiron says he doesn't know, even though I am willing to swear on the Styx that he knows, and he doesn't wish to tell me. And mother just says that I'll know in time. You're not cheating on me, are you?

Percy, I also would like you to know that I've decided to break our relationship. I just feel that it was never the same as it was before after you were gone for eight months, and now, you've disappeared again. The other reason is that I have accepted an architect contract from Greece, where they've hired me to help rebuild and redesign the Parthenon! The contract is for three years, Percy, and I'm not sure whether I would be able to stay faithful to you, and that our relationship could withstand such a strain. So I want to break our relationship now so that you don't have to suffer later on.

I hope we can still be friends and maybe even get back together.

Love,

Annabeth.

I felt like as if someone had slammed a red-hot dagger repeatedly into my heart. It felt twisted, broken, ripped apart. "No…" I muttered. "This isn't possible, everything I've done, and you leave me?" I whispered incredulously. The waves crashed against the sandy shores, and the sky darkened. "How? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME ANNABETH!" I screamed as my pain and sadness turn into raw fury. I was oblivious to the fact that a massive thunderstorm was brewing, and it was beginning to rain heavily. Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed, only adding to my anger.

"EVERYTHING I'VE DONE, AND IT WAS FOR NOTHING!" "I hope we can still be friends… and maybe even get back together…. I hissed. "I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU, EVER AGAIN! I screamed into the air. Tears running down my face, I yelled, and gave full vent to all my emotions, of anger, hurt, pain, rage. A hurricane sprang to life, while several tornadoes touched down, ripping up the ground, knocking down trees, all the water in sight instantly exploded, and a wave of pure force shot from me, blowing everything up in a 50-yard radius. I gave another scream, and everything was increased tenfold. The ground shook, and I could hear lots of screaming and crashing sounds. Gradually, I let it down, and sank to my knees, crying. I stayed that way until I could hear people scrambling over to the beach to see what had caused it. I stood up and surveyed the damage with a bit of shock. The ground around me had massive, deep cracks, so deep that I could see bits of magma bubbling underneath. A crater had formed when I unleashed my anger, and I knew that the dryads would be really angry with me. A massive part of the forest had been completely trashed, trees and dirt lying all over the place. Deep trenches had been dug where the tornadoes had touched down. Crap, I hope the gods don't punish me for this. I thought. The campers were getting closer, so I quickly ran into what was left of the forest and headed for my cabin.

Once in my cabin, the first thing that hit me was the pictures. Pictures of me and Annabeth, sitting together, holding hands, smiling happily. A cold rage filled my heart, and I whipped out Riptide, slashing blindly at the pictures, careful to keep pictures of me, Thalia, Nico, Jason, Piper, Leo, Frank, Hazel, Reyna, and others separate. When I finished cutting my pictures up, I gave a groan. In my anger to cut up the pictures, I had also scored really deep gashes in the wood so that it now looked as if a rabid bear had attacked it. Ah well. I flopped onto the bed, face first, then yelped when I felt something hard pressing against me near the hip. I hastily leapt up, wary that maybe the Stoll's had done something, or the dryads had put a lump of centipedes in my bed. I cautiously yanked back the covers and found it to be clean. Then I look down at my waist and found a small bag hanging off the belt of my jeans. With a start, I remembered that they contained the sixteen apples that I had taken from the garden. Thinking about the garden made me sad again, and I carefully lay myself down on the bed, so that I wouldn't crush the apples. Before I knew it, I fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, I woke up when it was almost lunchtime. I decided to skip it and went straight to the sword arena. It was a place that, like the beach, always calmed me down. As I walked there, I realized just how much damage had been done from my tantrum. Parts of the climbing wall had cracked and broken, and half of the Demeter cabin had fallen apart. I began to feel guilty and quickly took out the training dummies. I then decided to practice my moves, doing backwards stabs, aerial hits, scissor kicks, and of course, improving my stamina for the 360.

After ripping apart the 300th dummy, I noticed that it was getting dark so I decided to take a break even though I really didn't need it. The dummies were just too easy and posed no challenge at all. I took a water bottle, drank half of it, and dumped the rest over my head. I wish Frank, Hazel and the others were here. I thought. Then at least, I could have someone to talk to. But nope, they had moved to Camp Jupiter, since that Camp Jupiter openly welcomed Jason and the others with open arms, and closed me off after what I did to Octavian. We still Iris Messaged each other, but you couldn't exactly rant on an IM. Especially having to pay drachmas every five minutes. I was deep in thought when the conch horn sounded three times, which meant that there were monsters attacking the camp.

The whole camp instantly rushed to Thalia's tree, to see a man with a tan, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts. Wait, that's my dad! What's he doing with that kid next to him? Everyone saw that they were being chased by only 3 dracaenas, which made most of them laugh.

The boy next to him had black hair like me, but his eyes were a cruel, dull, green. My father and he ran up the hill until one of the dracaenas caught up and grabbed his shoulder. He screamed and drew a sword that hung from his belt and slashed in a wild, hilarious move. Lucky for him, it connected with the dracaena's neck and exploded into dust. The second and third one gave a scream of rage and leapt at him. Idiocy saved him. He rushed forward, and tripped on his feet, accidentally slashing a monster leg. Dust. Then the last dracaena leapt on him, and he just held the sword in front of him like a spear, and the dracaena impaled itself on the sword. Stupid monster.

The kid began smirking and had a smug look on his face.

"Did you see that, father?" he said. "Three monsters, all by myself, without any training," he said, all smug and proud looking.

Oh hell, I've got a pompous brat for a brother… I thought. Then Poseidon walked up in front of everyone, and announced loudly, "This is my son Matthew, he's 15 years old, and looks like he knows how to fight. So treat him nicely." Matthew stood there, all proud looking, as everyone bowed. Except for me. I walked up to Poseidon.

"Dad, why didn't you claim him when he was thirteen? You were supposed to" I asked.

"Shut it. It does not matter when I claim him, I've been keeping an eye on him ever since he was born. And make sure you treat him nicely, Perseus." My father snapped at me. I was shocked and hurt. He had never talked to me like this before, not with his harsh eyes, and abrupt body language. Looks like I've been replaced already… I thought sadly. I watched as he gave Matthew a hug, and disappear into sea mist. Everyone was already complimenting him on how he killed three dracaenas without any training, treating him as if he were already a hero. It was too much for me to take in, first, I do all those things that Athena wanted me to do, then Annabeth dumps me, and now, my dad treats me like trash and I've got an egoistic, stuck up half-brother. I ran to the beach, ignoring Chiron's surprisingly cold and stiff welcoming words and the horn that sounded the time for dinner.

As I walked back, I was reluctant to go to my cabin and meet my brother so I decided to join the camp sing along. When I arrived, everyone was already leaving, barely glancing at me, all tagging along behind Matthew. Ridiculous kissy ups and lapdogs I thought angrily. The fire was still burning, so I decided to sit beside it, and think on just how upside down my world had turned.

"What ails you, young hero," a female voice asked me.

I flinched, not expecting anyone to still be around. Then I turned and saw an eight-year-old girl with a simple brown dress sitting in the fire, staring at me with cosy eyes and a warm smile.

"Lady Hestia, I'm sorry, I was thinking, what did you say?" I said.

"I sense that you are distraught, what is bothering you young hero?" she asked.

I sighed. "I've lost almost all my ties with this world, my girlfriend dumped me, my father more or less disowned me, and my closest friends have moved to Camp Jupiter. Nico is busy, and Thalia's with the Hunters. I won't be able to talk to them for at least half a year. " I said. "Anyone can see that Matthew is going to be the "next big thing". There isn't much point of living anymore, except for my mother. She's the only thing that's keeping me here". "Most of my true, old friends are in the Underworld. I personally think that being dead would be more fun." Tears were coming to my eyes again, and I angrily wiped them away. Hestia looked at me with sadness and pity, then she asked me something that shocked me.

"Percy Jackson, how would you like to be my champion?" Hestia asked.

"Y-your champion?" I stuttered.

"Yes, as Jason is Hera's champion, you can be my champion and I will be your patron" Hestia explained, smiling kindly at me.

Without hesitation, I accepted, "I would be honoured to be your champion, Lady Hestia."

"The honour is mine, actually. Now, since I am your patron, that means you now have quite a bit control over fire. Take my hand, and I will officially make you my champion."

I reached over and held her hand. I felt a powerful warmth wash over me, and then pins and needles began going throughout my body. Suddenly, it stopped and my hands burst into green flames, and my eyes felt hot. Hestia smiled and gave me a wink, "You should be glad that Aphrodite wasn't here, or she'd swoon over you right now."

"Erm, why? And why do my eyes feel hot?" I asked. "Here," she said, pulling a mirror out of nowhere. I held the mirror in front of me and looked at my reflection. I was shocked, my eyes were pits of flames, like Hestia's, but my eyes were a green flame.

"Um, is there any way to keep my eyes normal?" I asked.

"Yes, you just have to think about it" she replied.

I concentrated, and my eyes returned to its normal sea green colour.

"Thank you Lady Hestia"

"You are most welcome, Perseus. I suggest that you practice your flame powers daily, and to ask the Hephaestus cabin to build some automatons for you to fight against. Maybe even go fight some monsters in the sea, eh? Oh, and you can set your swords on fire too, even underwater" she said. She gave me a last smile and disappeared into smoke. I took out both of my swords and willed them to catch on fire. Green flames slowly grew, licking the blades, until my blades were completely covered in flames. I willed an extra bit of fire to go on it, and green flames dripped to the ground, hissing and burning where they struck. Dang, if only I had this type of power when fighting the Hydra and Ladon, I would have been laughing then. I thought. Then I stopped the fire, breathing hard, sweat already coating my forehead.

I grinned. This was going to be awesome.

I walked to my cabin, and unsurprisingly, found Matthew sprawled on a bed, snoring so loudly, he would make Tyson sound like a baby. I gave a mental groan and quickly took out my duffle bag. I quietly packed everything in there, my pictures, my iPod, earphones, clothes, everything into the duffle bag. I slung it over my shoulder, and walked towards the beach, deciding to sleep in a little crook where the sand was softer than cotton. As I lay down, I stared at the stars, especially at Zoe Nightshade. Before I fell asleep, I had one last thought: Tomorrow's training session will be fun.

I woke up to the conch horn sounding, and a naiad poking me in the side. I struggled up with a start.

"Um, what the Hades?" I mumbled.

The naiad blushed. "I'm sorry to bother you, Lord Perseus, but if you don't hurry up and go eat breakfast, people are going to wonder what's happened to you."

I snorted. "I doubt that. They're all fawning over Matthew."

"Oh, that stupid spawn of Poseidon? Humph, no way am I addressing him politely, my colleagues and I will be making things as hard as possible for him."

I got up and began walking towards the pavilion. "Um, why would you do that?" I asked.

"Because he's stuck up and is an idiot. I can tell. He has no respect for anything, unlike you." The naiad replied, blushing and batting her eyelashes.

"Well, see you later alright? I gotta go. And thanks for your help."

The naiad nodded and waved goodbye. I walked towards the pavilion, to see almost everyone was there. I instinctively turned to the right, expecting Annabeth to be there, but then I remembered her letter. Thinking back on it made me sad, angry and heartbroken all over again. I stiffly walked over to the Poseidon table and sat down as the nymphs served the food.

"Oi!, what are you doing here at my table?" a voice yelled indignantly.

I turned slowly, and, as I expected, was my brother, Matthew. I fixed him with my best wolf stare and took immense pleasure as he flinched.

"Excuse me? This is your table?" I asked quietly.

He looked flustered by the fact that I had spoken quietly and didn't yell right back at him. Mentally, I grinned. Something I had learned from Octavian. Sometimes, speaking quietly had a bigger impact than yelling.

"Yes, of course, it is!" he bellowed, using bluster to cover himself up.

I faked a yawn. "Really? Well, seeing as I'm not toasty crisps yet, this table is every bit mine than yours, boy."

He leapt to his feet, his hand already at his sword handle. "You dare defy me? I am a son of Poseidon! Didn't you see my take down those monsters yesterday? And I haven't gotten an ounce of training!"

Gods, he was a midget, I'd say he was around 5'7 or something. I slowly rose to my feet, towering over him since I was about 6'2.

"We'll see how well you do this afternoon during training," I said in a carrying whisper. I gave him a wolfish grin and walked off towards the braziers to give Poseidon my daily offering, even if he didn't care about me anymore. I heard a yell and footsteps but before I could do anything, a voice called out.

"Matthew! Enough!"

It was Chiron. He seemed absolutely angry, with a coldness in his eyes that made everyone flinch backwards. I felt a rush of gratitude and affection for Chiron. At least he hadn't forgotten about me. Unlike everyone else who was looking at Matthew with pity and some slight awe. Except, I noticed with a start, Katie Gardener, Travis and Connor, Nyssa from the Hephaestus cabin, all of the minor god's children, and surprisingly, Clarisse LaRue and the entire Ares cabin. All of them were looking at Matthew with disgust, exasperation, and, on the Stoll's part, were making extremely rude finger signs at Matthew. I felt another rush of affection for them. Maybe I wasn't so alone after all.

"Everyone, continue to what you were supposed to do and make it snappy, we're running behind schedule," Chiron said, pointing towards the braziers.

I went over and scraped half of my food in, muttering "For Poseidon" while I was doing it. I walked back to the Poseidon table, and scarfed the food down as quickly as possible, not wanting to sit next to Matthew any more than necessary. As soon as I finished, I leapt up and gave the tray to a nymph. I walked off, heading towards the Hephaestus cabin, thinking to wait there, asking them to build some super automatons for me. Then I decided to Iris Message Leo since Leo could tell the Hephaestus cabin to make anything and they'd do it right away. I walked to the beach and sent a spray of water into the air, mixing with the sunlight, making a rainbow. I took a drachma out of my pocket and tossed it in.

"Oh Fleecy, do me a solid and show me Leo Valdez at Camp Jupiter," I said.

"Excuse me? Percy? What is this nonsense of 'do me a solid' about?" a voice said from the rainbow.

I gave a small jump. "Um, Iris, is that you?"

"Yes, what do you expect?"

"Well, it's because Fleecy told me that she was doing all the calls and said that the "Do me a solid'' was her direct line, it would be faster," I explained.

"Oh. I didn't know that. Well, anyways, connecting you to Leo, young hero" Iris replied.

I saw Leo fidgeting and cursing with something small in his hand. Then it went off with a small explosion, giving Leo a nice sunflower face makeover. I couldn't help it.

"Nice makeover Leo, you sure that's going to help you attract Reyna?" I said, smirking slightly.

Leo jumped and whirled around. "Hey Perce! How's it going?"

I felt my smile drop off my face. "Oh, it's going okay."

I must have said it in a stiff tone, since Leo looked at me and instead of pestering me with questions, went straight to the point.

"So, what you call for? Flirting tips?"

I glared at him. "No. I need a favour."

"Alright, what is it?"

I quickly explained to him what I needed and whether his cabin would be willing to do it.

"Yeah, of course, man! You're the Hero of Olympus, the killer of Giants and all that yada yada, of course, they'd do it. Who wouldn't? And I'll just tell them to keep on making them so if you need new ones, just go ask."

Who wouldn't help right now? Almost the entire camp. I thought sadly. Out loud, I said, "Thanks a lot Leo, I owe you one."

"No you don't, what type of debts are there between friends, right?" he said cheerfully.

"yeah… well, thanks again Leo, talk to you later." I said.

I was about to swipe my hand through the message, but then I decided to talk to Jason and maybe ask Piper a couple of questions. I threw in another drachma.

"Can you show me, Jason Grace, please?" I asked.

"Will do"

The image shimmered, to show a semi-dark room, where the blinds were pulled down, a bit of sunshine poking through the gaps. I frowned. What was Jason doing in a semi-dark room? Then I saw two shapes on the bed. The same bed. One had chocolate brown hair, and the other had blonde hair. Their lips were locked together and Jason was bare-chested while Piper's shirt had ridden up so high you could say she was topless. For a second, I just stood there, shocked, then I felt the pain that I had barely kept under a cover rise and take over me. I numbly swiped my hands through the message, and collapsed to my knees, asking myself, "Why? Why does Annabeth have to break up with me? Why can't I have a nice ending for once?" I cried. I couldn't help it, but the tears streamed down my face again. I heard footsteps and I hastily wiped my face, and turned to meet whoever had come, expecting Matthew or someone and jeered at me for being a crybaby. To my surprise, it was Clarisse.

"Go ahead. Call me a baby. Or anything." I grumbled.

She raised an eyebrow. She gave a flick of her wrist, and behind her came the Stoll's and Katie.

"What do you guys want," I said wearily.

To my surprise, Clarisse put her arm on my shoulder.

"C'mon guys, Prissy here needs a group hug." She said.

"I do not!" I said indignantly.

"yeah, right, Percy, and I can't pickpocket a New York businessman." Said Travis and Connor.

Katie nodded. "C'mon, Percy, you can tell us. We're your oldest friends"

"That's right, Prissy, you may be a crybaby an idiot, but I'll always stand by your side," Clarisse said.

I had to admit, I was touched. I sighed. "Annabeth broke up with me."

To my surprise, my friends just sighed and l looked as if their worst dreams had come true.

"I knew it. I told you, Clarisse, that that's what would happen." Katie said.

Clarisse's eyes flared. "How was I supposed to know she'd be that unfaithful?"

"Yeah, I know. I was hoping that it was something else bothering her…" Katie said sadly.

I sat up straighter. "Wait, what are you guys talking about?"

Clarisse and Katie were avoiding my eyes. "Travis. Connor. Tell. Me. Now."

They flinched from my gaze. "Well, you know how you were gone for like 5 months right? Almost half a year?"

"Yeah, so? I was gone longer than that and we went through it perfectly fine." I said grumpily.

"I know. All of us knew. But when you disappeared, Annabeth was worried at first, but after half a month, she got angry. Like, really angry. And very fragile. She spent a lot more time in the mortal world too, and her excuse was that she was searching for you. But after a while, a few of us began wondering whether or not what she said was true."

I began feeling angry. "Yeah? And then what."

Travis flinched. "Well, you know, I began to notice that she was openly flirting with other boys, and when I stalked- them, followed her, I found her walking hand in hand with some guy. Definitely mortal. And well, I overheard him asking whether she wanted to join him to Greece, you know, rebuilding and remodelling the Parthenon. And whether she wanted to be his girlfriend. And she instantly accepted. Like, no hesitation-n-n…

"You mean she gave me up to go with a mortal and architecture?" I hissed. I knew about the architecture, but not the mortal. I could feel my eyes burning with rage.

"P-Percy, cc-calm down, you're getting really s-scary." Clarisse stuttered as everyone backed away from me. I realized that I had risen to my full height and my eyes were beginning to catch on fire. I took a deep breath and blew out, sighing as I did.

"Well, maybe she and I just weren't meant to be, even after knowing her for five years," I said in a flat tone.

The others nodded resignedly. "Just remember Percy, we'll always be at your side," Katie whispered, then they left.

I looked at my watch and realized it was almost time for sword fighting lessons. I walked over to the arena, keeping a straight face even though my feelings were in turmoil. When I arrived at the arena, a whole crowd of people was already there, waiting. Matthew stood at the front, a smug smile on his face, sword in one hand and his other arm around an Aphrodite girl who was squealing with delight. Matthew saw me and smirked.

"About time you got here, kid. Afraid to get your ass whupped?" he sneered.

"We'll see who's standing and who's on the ground at the end of this session," I replied calmly.

"Bring it on, mud spawn." He challenged as he held his sword in an awful position. I made a slight finger sign that I had learned from Travis, and he charged. Exactly what I wanted. He held his sword so low that it almost scraped against the dirt.

"Get ready to get slashed!" he roared.

I merely stood there, my hands down at my side, unarmed. As he brought his sword back to swing, I leapt forward, grabbed both of his arms, and wrenched them backwards with so much force that they popped and I knew I had dislocated both of his shoulders. Then I kicked him in the crotch, and as his body bent reflexively, I brought my knee straight into his face with a sickening crunch. Then I leaned down, picked him up by his throat, easily lifting him off the ground, curled my foot up against my body, and shot it out in a perfect line, releasing my hold on his throat as my foot connected with his stomach. He flew back about 15 feet, landing in a cloud of dust. Blood was spilling from his mouth, while he retched repeatedly, gobbets of blood flowing out with every retch. I stared at him coldly.

"Is that the best you can do, boy? Even a five-year-old can give me more of a challenge." I taunted him.

Matthew struggled to sit up, gurgled a few incomprehensible words, and collapsed backwards, unconscious.

I gave a derisive snort. "Well, now, that was too easy. Alright, who's next?"

Everyone stared at me in pure fear, which quickly turned into anger. Everyone began yelling at me, 'Is that how you train a new person?', 'When did you become that cruel, Jackson?' or 'We can learn perfectly well by ourselves, we don't need you!'

The entire Ares cabin burst into yelling, but they were yelling for me, which was surprising, while Travis and Connor were walking around, quickly slipping something into everyone's pockets. I then saw Katie give Travis and Connor a wink, and I mentally shuddered at what Katie would've grown and put inside those paper packets.

"QUIET!" Chiron roared, stomping his hoof several times against the ground. No one listened. Everyone was getting into a yelling match when a flash of bright golden light interrupted everyone. When it cleared, my father stood there, his trident in his hand. Everyone instantly stopped shouting and kneeled.

"Who did this?" he roared. "Tell me!"

Everyone flinched back, and then they hesitantly pointed at me.

Poseidon's eyes flared as he looked at me. "Perseus Jackson! How could you do that to your own brother?" he yelled, the ground shaking with his anger.

"He deserved it" I replied, surprisingly calm. I actually didn't really care whether or not Poseidon blasted me to the Underworld since most of my friends seemed to be dead anyway.

He gave me a good glare, and at that moment, I saw that his eyes seemed slightly glazed. But before I could get a good luck, he turned away and bent down to Matthew. He sent a pulse of green light through him, and Matthew struggled up.

"Well? Do you not want to come to my palace or not? I did tell you I'd pick you up didn't I?" Poseidon said.

What? He invites Matthew to his palace? When was the last time he invited me to his palace? I thought angrily.

"Dad, I can't, that stupid idiot dislocated my arms," Matthew said hoarsely, pointing his head in my direction.

Poseidon gave me another good glare and bent down, picked Matthew up, and teleported away.

I stood there, feeling abandoned, unwanted. I turned around stiffly and walked towards the Hephaestus cabin. I knocked, and thankfully, Nyssa opened the door.

"You want your automatons now?" she asked.

"That'd be great. Thank you very much" I said.

She nodded and snapped her fingers. Several Hephaestus kids brought out huge, tall automatons, covered in spikes and if they followed my instructions, lots of hidden blades.

"Here. This cart will make it much easier for you to pull it wherever you want to pull it." As they lifted it up onto the cart. I gave it an experimental pull and was surprised at how easy it rolled.

"Thank you again, guys." They nodded and closed the door rather sharply. I sighed. Great, just what I need, more haters. As I pulled it towards the beach, I decided to train my fire powers since I had like near zero control over it.

I reached the beach and pushed the cart into a hiding spot that only I knew about. I stretched and concentrated on drawing fire from inside myself. I felt a warm feeling pass through my hand. I glanced down. My right hand was entirely covered in green flames. I then tried it with my left hand. I grinned. Now both of my hands were on fire. Dang, this was cool. I then summoned a wall of water and doused myself in it. The fire didn't go out. This is so cool I thought. Then I willed the fire to go away and it instantly went out.

"Good job, Percy Jackson." A voice said behind me.

I turned around, startled, to see Hestia standing there in her grown women form. I bowed.

"Ah, how do I address you? My patron or Lady Hestia?" I asked.

She smiled. "Hestia is fine. After all, if it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have had a throne." She said.

"Ok Lady Hestia." She gave me a rueful glare as I laughed.

"You can do much more than set your hands on fire. And also, since you are my champion, my powers will come as easily as controlling water is to you. Basically, your control over fire is many times more than that Leo Valdez. You can create firewalls, fireballs, shoot blasts of fire, surround yourself in fire, and create a fire tornado." Hestia said.

"That's nice. But, forgive me if I'm disrespectful, my patron, but why are you letting me use these abilities for fighting? Because I thought you said that you liked everything to be peaceful and quiet?" I asked.

Hestia smiled. "Myself, yes, I will only use my fire powers if I'm forced to. But you, you are my champion, and a champion must be able to fight, yes?" she said, giving me a sly smile.

I knew that it was only because I was her champion that she let me use her gift that way, so I merely said: "Thank you, Lady Hestia."

"Not at all, Percy Jackson. And remember, if all seems lost, come to the hearth. The original hearth" She said. Before I could ask what she meant, she disappeared in a ball of flame.

I got up and decided to try what she told me. I concentrated and whipped up a firewall that lasted for about five seconds before I couldn't hold it anymore. I practised until the conch horn sounded for dinner, by then, I could maintain a firewall as easily as controlling water to shoot through the air. I could also control when to let the flames take over my eyes. I grinned. I couldn't wait to show Thalia and Nico that I had green flames for eyes. As I reached the pavilion, I heard my father bragging about how quickly Matthew had healed, and how he had managed to help in a fight against sea monsters that still rebelled against Poseidon. All the campers were hanging on to each word, their mouths wide open. I quietly sat down at my table, behind Poseidon, quietly scraped my food into the brazier, and quietly ate the food as fast as I could, hoping to sneak away before Poseidon finished his stupid speech. No such luck. I was halfway through eating when he disappeared into sea mist, with a loud reminder to treat his son well, as if I didn't exist. Matthew turned to me.

"Well, that should teach you to be nicer to me, jerk." He smirked.

I couldn't help it. My anger snapped, and I picked up my plate of mashed potatoes and slammed it into his disgusting face. Sure, I'd probably be hungry later on, but right now, I didn't give a damn. I stalked off towards the beach, ignoring the yells and cries of Matthew and the campers behind me. As I walked to my sleeping spot, I decided to give them a little scare and summoned the largest ball of fire I could. Then I tossed it high into the air and made it explode with a bang. Screams were heard, and mass yelling. I smirked. Now I can go to sleep I thought, laying down in my comfy little spot.

Over the next couple weeks, Poseidon came and visited Matthew daily, always inviting him to his palace, and praising him to the skies for Matthew's "skill". As far as I was concerned, he barely knew how to handle a sword properly. Everyone was fawning over Matthew, seriously impressed that Poseidon favoured him so much, while they didn't even care whether I showed up or not. Clarisse and the Stoll's were now cheerful spots in my life, where they kept on pranking him or thrashing him, but always getting away with it. I was also willing to bet that Chiron was secretly helping them, as I could tell how much he hated it when Matthew boasted constantly, saying he was "as strong as a god" or "the best swordsmen alive".

I, meanwhile, trained my fire powers with a vengeance. I could control it so well, that it rivalled my water abilities. I could also control both of them easily, at the same time, while doing complex manoeuvres with my dual swords. After the Hephaestus cabin got pissed off by the fact that I destroyed their automatons so quickly,(most likely because my swords were on fire) I took to the ocean, travelling far and wide, learning many of its secrets and destroying tons of monsters. Delphin, king of the dolphins, had become one of my closest friends, and many of the mermen admired me a lot. I could also tell they were a little scared because I could use fire underwater, but it was still a lot of fun. Especially making a boiled lobster monster. There was this monster, it had the form of a giant lobster, a disgusting booger colour, its shells so hard that even my flaming swords had a hard time cutting it. We eventually defeated it when I lifted it up in a massive water ball and sent a continuous stream of fire at it, effectively making boiled lobster. The only side effect was that we didn't get any lobster meat, all we got was burnt shells and a stinky smell. Some monsters just don't have the courtesy to leave behind good keepsakes.

I was reliving through my memories and adventures, walking around the camp, when Chiron came to me, a look of deep concern and sorrow etched on his ancient face. The instant I saw it, I stopped still.

"Chiron, what is it," I asked.

"Percy, my boy, you won't want to hear this." He said.

"Please, just tell me," I begged him.

Chiron turned away. "Your mother and stepfather are dead...


End file.
